Through the lenses of culture: impact of collectivism orientation on Chinese consumers' intentions to purchase Australian products and services

Abstract

This study reports on the influence of collectivist culture on Chinese consumers’ intention to purchase Australian products and services. Data were obtained from a large-scale online survey completed by 3,171 respondents across over 20 cities and provinces in the People’s Republic of China. Results indicated that ingroup influence and product perception, but not marketing efforts, had a significant positive effect on purchasing intention. Selfidentity as a consumer of imported products had a main effect on purchasing intention and also moderated the strength of association between ingroup influence and intention and between product perception and intention. When self-identity was low, both ingroup influence and product perception had a greater impact on purchase intention than when self-identity was high. These findings have important implications for international business practitioners given that word-of-mouth communication might be more effective than marketing efforts in increasing Chinese consumers’ intention to purchase Australian products and services.